The right way to tackle al-Qaeda?

By
Tom Toles

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Complex messiah

A convoluted theology has emerged in the wild woods of the comments section. One writer greeted my return from vacation with an ironic taunt that suggested I thought he had nothing better to do than breathlessly await my return. I don't know, but that fact that he posted it the day I came back seemed to confirm that he DIDN'T have anything better to do.

He also implied that I thought of myself as the messiah. Now I don't know where he would get an idea like that, other than my Facebook page where I have a photo of myself walking on water.

Then yesterday, a commenter said OBAMA was my messiah. This was his considered response to my blog post that conservatives were out of ideas. I guess this is what he considers an idea. That and calling me Tommy ol' boy three times. Hard to argue with ideas like that. I said all they have left is preposterosities like Sarah Palin. The commenter went on to endorse her, pretty much confirming my whole post. But I shall forgive them, for they know not what they do. --Tom Toles

Other Syndicated Editorial Cartoons:

I tend not to either like or dislike what people say. I'm more interested in methods of thinking. Your comment indicted a method of thinking that stems from a false argument. I dislike the usage of false arguments and comparisions. They mislead, usually deliberatly so. That I do dislike.

"preposterosities". I love this word. It conjures up an image of a preposterous looking dinasour which is a cross between triceratops and a Pteradactyl.

Speaking of a "preposterosity" here is a way of thinking that calls this word to mind.....

"Wonder, Tom, what the Muslims' reaction would be if you casually took one of their sacred sayings in vain as you have in “...I shall forgive them, for they know not what they do.” First, I don't think you would. Second, they would excoriate you and you know"

If your offended because Mr. Toles took a sacred saying in vain why not just say it?

If your trying to show muslim's in bad light the fanatics manage that all on their own thank you.

If your trying to compare Islam to Christianity as a matter of standard logic it's invalid to use only examples of the most egregious behavior from a cherry picked selection to use as a comparison.

And if your suggesting Mr. Toles would never dream of using an Islamic quote out of sympathy you should be more explicit. Perhaps he doesn't know any? I know all of one and find it hard to believe the general population is any better informed.

P.S. The quote fit perfectly with the entire point of his walking on water, messiah pun which apparently you didn't think was funny.

P.P.S It was funny. Keep it up. Laughter is a precious commodity. We all need more of it.

Mr. Toles, Thank you for your excellent cartoons and commentary. "Complex Messiah" really excoriates your detractors.
Question: Do the Marines really hate you?
You are delightfully rotten to the core.
Keep up the good work. Thanks

Hi Tom, Love this cartoon and it is dead on, no pun intended. We are on a fool's mission. It is unbelievable to me that Obama is stuck in the same tar baby and doesn't know it. Don't know much about history I guess as we are in a long line of "stupids".

Wonder, Tom, what the Muslims' reaction would be if you casually took one of their sacred sayings in vain as you have in “...I shall forgive them, for they know not what they do.” First, I don't think you would. Second, they would excoriate you and you know it.

It's a shame that people aren't paying attention to Afghanistan. The US economy seems to be on our minds more than anything else. People seem to forget that military spending, Bush's two wars, and the consequences of all this, have a huge influence on the US budget and the economy. We're still spending billions a month in Afghanistan and Iraq. It's time to get out. It's time to leave. Not slowly, not after some "escalation", but NOW! If terrorists flood back into Afghanistan, fine. Let them live there. Increase all the security measures necessary to keep airports, trains, and other sensitive sites safe and protected within the US and where we can in the world, but we cannot keep fighting wars because a handful of people don't like us. There would be no end to that.

Imagine, if you will, a different reality. One where, instead of bluster and invasion after 9/11, we did all we could to use the *overwhelming* sympathy the US had after that event, to work through international channels, blockades, sanctions, and other methods, to shine the light of day on these terrorists. They soon would have had no sympathy from anyone, and would have faded away or become completely irrelevant (provided we also changed some of our Middle Eastern policies). Instead we keep making more of them with every "errant" drone attack or bombing, while killing and maiming our own soldiers and countless innocent civilians. This is not WW II. There is no way to "win" these wars. These are not people who want our help, or want us in their country. We are making enemies by being there. It's time to leave.

Tom I love this cartoon!!! I laughed and cried both after viewing it. War has become nothing more than a dysfunctional operation by America since WWII. JFK knew that about Vietnam and look where it got him. His brother Ted knew that about invading Iraq and those who wanted it did him no favors either. It functions for only those select few who profit from it. In Afghanistan and Pakistan it appears our designated enemy is profiting the most.

Bobbo2 has it right. We'll pursue AQ to the ends of the earth (like AFG). It would be nice if Toles actually presented any facts whatsoever into these discussions (and had a legitimate blog like the columnists where you can rate blog responses). Toles likes to bait the right; I'm okay with that but if he would actually present both sides of an issue and THEN pick a side with supporting arguments, we would all be the wiser. The talent of Toles' cartoons is evident; I'm not sure if we'll ever progress as a blog-team until he upgrades the structure of his debate issues and the technical quality of his blog. We're waiting...

(1) The Republicans have at least one ace up their collective sleeve: Gen. Petraeus. If you tune into the conspiracy networks, you'll hear predictions of Petraeus staging a very public falling out with his boss, Obama, mid-2011, then challenging ex-boss Obama in the 2012 election.

You read it here first.

(2) If the terrorists are such a viable threat and will do anything, including blowing themselves up, to hurt us, then why don't they just walk across the Mexican border and plant bombs everywhere? Mexican security too tough for them to get in? Puh-leeze.

Hundreds of people cross the U.S.-Mexican border every week, undocumented and untraceable, with backpacks full of who-knows-what. Yet, the bloodthirsty terrorists can't figure out that they can just saunter into the U.S.?

Something tells me the threat is overstated. Why would anyone want to inflate the terrorist threat?

Preposterosities. Gotta love it. As to Afghanistan, can someone please explain to me the the heck we are doing over there? Doesn't anyone in charge know about Karzai's brother and the drug trade? I believe it was none other than Moshe Dyan who said "You can't stop violence by fighting it with violence." He would know. We don't seem to.

Blame Bush all you want, Tom. Fact is, for half of his second term he was rendered completely without power through the Democratic majority headed by Pelosi and Reid. Everything that's befallen us since January 2007 is on the Democrat's tab. Meanwhile, Obama took a special forces and drone holding action in Afghanistan (which was/is all it's worth) and to validate a campaign talking point dumped 130,000 troops onto the ground to do a slow bleed for...how long? Iraq is doing a slow bleed via the meddling of Iran, as is Afghanistan, and Obama does nothing about it.

Would a reasonable outcome be that since we don't intend to fight the source of our troubles, how about we encourage Mr. Obama to withdraw our troops and let the strongest despot win with the caveat in place that if new camps for terror-gangs appear, they can expect us to reach out and touch them with drones. There is NO sense leaving our kids over there unless we dry up the sources of explosives, ammunition and weapons our enemies possess. All of it comes through Iran and it's criminal negligence to allow it to go on.

The left is now in charge of tackling al-Qaeda and looks to be pretty much the same as the right way. The liberal's master plan is making things so dysfunctional a few maybe looking for caves over here, but most are just looking forward to the ballot box.

Six attacks upon the United States. Yemen, 2 killed. The first World Trade Center attack, 6 killed, 1,042 injured. An attempt to assassinate President Clinton. U.S. embassy bombings, 300 killed. The USS Cole, 17 killed. The 9/11 attacks, 3,000 killed. We sure will hunt Al Qaeda down wherever they are. And we won't do it in a Beetle Bailey tank either. Any Nation which thinks that they are safe to harbor them needs to expect action from the United States that will cost that Nation dearly. Al Qaeda is comprised of evil people who find justification for murdering civilians in religion. Al Qaeda is an enemy of the United States and all other civilized Nations. Who else is going to do it? The United Nations? Sure, once they straighten out Iran and North Korea.